the American marten
Tracy Graziano, Pennsylvania Game Commission
Pennsylvania Game Commission may reintroduce the marten to the state’s woodlands
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Scott LaMar
Tracy Graziano, Pennsylvania Game Commission
the American marten
Airdate: April 10th, 2023
Most Pennsylvanians probably aren’t familiar with the American marten or pine marten – a wiesel-like animal that was native to Pennsylvania, but has been extinct in the state since early in the 20th Century.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is studying the feasibility of re-introducing the marten.
Thomas Keller, a furbearer biologist with the Game Commission appeared on The Spark Monday and described the marten,”It’s kind of tough because it’s been gone for 120 years. But the Martin is in similar size to the American mink, which is quite common throughout the state. The Martin is anywhere from 20 to 24 inches long. It averages about £2. It’s generally a lighter brown color than the mink, which is generally a darker, chocolaty color. And then it actually has an orange bib underneath its chin that runs down onto its chest and it has semi retractable claws. So that means that it can easily climb trees. It actually can run up a tree as quickly as it can run across the the surface of the ground. And it does a lot of it spends a lot of its time in the trees or on the ground hunting or working through its territory.”
Why after so long, should the marten be re-introduced to Pennsylvania? Keller said,”Ecologically, this was a part of our overall community that we had here within the forests in Pennsylvania. And so what we saw is, is as we lost all these species in the late 1800s and then we’ve worked really hard over the last 100 years to bring these species back. We see the forest health actually increase as we bring species back. And that makes sense because each one has its role within that ecological community. And so it’s a nice theory, of course, but there’s actual practicality with the marten. The marten does two things that we’re very well aware of. The first is seed dispersal. So we talked about its diet and how much seeds it eats, hard mass and soft mass. But we also need to consider that for this tiny little animal, it has a three and a half mile square home range, which is huge in comparison to a lot of our other larger mammalian species here in the state. And so what that means is, as it’s eating these seeds and then moving across its home range, it’s depositing seeds throughout. And that’s really important for a lot of our tree and shrub species here in Pennsylvania. It’s also really important and plays a major role in rodent population management within the force, which is also really important, trying to keep that balance there of rodents within the forest.”
This is not something new for the Game Commission – white-tailed deer, bald eagles, wild turkeys, elk and beaver were all species that were reintroduced in Pennsylvania. Most are thriving now.
There have been some concerns from farmers about martens attacking chickens or livestock. Keller indicated martens would be re-introduced in Pennsylvania northern tier counties that are heavily forested and not prime farm land.
Keller was asked what the next step is for possible re-introduction of the marten,”We’re working through this very careful process. So we did the feasibility assessment. We’re working on a reintroduction management plan currently. That will be done in July. We’ll go out for public review and comment. And then once we get those comments back, that will go back to the board as a final plan draft and we’ll be asking them to approve that plan. If they would approve it, then we would move forward with reintroduction. If they don’t, then that’s where it would end.”
